Home » Excel-Built-In-Functions » Excel-Financial-Functions » Excel-Mduration-Function

The Excel MDURATION Function

Related Function:
DURATION

Function Description

The Excel Mduration function calculates the Modified Macaulay Duration of a security that pays periodic interest, assuming a par value of $100.

The syntax of the function is:

MDURATION( settlement, maturity, coupon, yld, frequency, [basis] )

Where the arguments are as follows:

settlement - The settlement date of the security (i.e. the date that the coupon is purchased).
maturity - The maturity date of the security (i.e. the date that the coupon expires).
coupon - The security's annual coupon rate.
yld - The security's annual yield.
frequency -

The number of coupon payments per year. This must be one of the following:

1 - Annually
2 - Semi-Annually
4 - Quarterly
[basis] -

An optional integer argument which specifies the financial day count basis that is used by the security. Possible values are:

Basis Day Count Basis
0 (or omitted) US (NASD) 30/360
1 actual/actual
2 actual/360
3 actual/365
4 European 30/360
For a detailed explanation of the financial day count basis rules, see the Wikipedia Day Count Convention page.

Note that the date arguments should be supplied to the function as either:

or

Warning: If you attempt to input text representations of dates into Excel functions, they may be interpreted differently, depending on the date system and date interpretation settings on your computer.


Excel Mduration Function Example

The following spreadsheet uses the Excel Mduration function to calculate the modified Macaulay Duration of a security that with a settlement date 01-Apr-2015, a maturity date 31-Mar-2025 and a yield of 8%. The coupon rate is 10% and payments are made quarterly.

  A B
1 Settlement Date: 01-Apr-2015
2 Maturity Date: 31-Mar-2025
3 =MDURATION( B1, B2, 10%, 8%, 4 )

The above Mduration function returns the value 6.540828452 years.

Note that, in the above Mduration function call:


Further examples of the Excel Mduration function are provided on the Microsoft Office website.


Mduration Function Errors

If you get an error from the Mduration function, this is likely to be one of the following:

Common Errors
#NUM! -

Occurs if either:

  • The supplied settlement date is ≥ maturity date
  or
  • Invalid numbers are supplied for the coupon, yld, frequency or [basis] arguments.
    (I.e. if either: coupon < 0; yld < 0; frequency is not equal to 1, 2 or 4; or [basis] is supplied and is not equal to 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4).
#VALUE! -

Occurs if either:

  • Any of the supplied arguments are non-numeric
  or
  • One of both of the supplied settlement or maturity dates are not a valid Excel dates.
Return to the Excel Financial Functions Page
Return to the List of All Built-In Excel Functions